Greetings from Shaun

2023 Prep Story time 

Last Tuesday we were thrilled to welcome all our 2023 prep students and their parents and carers to the school library for our second story time session. It was wonderful to see all of the children's excited faces and to meet everyone again. I am pleased to report that everyone indulged me and let me read a book by one of my all time favourite authors, Aaron Blabey. After stories were read and many questions were answered, everyone had the opportunity to then visit the principal's office en route to the playground. This really helped our future preps see different parts of the school and to feel like part of the Northcote Primary family. The children were relieved to see that the wombat hadn't really made a mess of the principals office, unlike the one in the story the previous fortnight!

We look forward to seeing them all again at the upcoming prep orientation sessions, which will run for the next four Tuesday mornings, beginning on the 8th of November.

Curriculum Day with Bronwyn Ryrie-Jones 

While you were enjoying a long weekend on Monday, the teachers and staff were kept busy with some great professional learning presented by Bronwyn Ryrie-Jones as part of our fourth and final Curriculum Day for the year. Bron is an absolutely inspiring individual who is a career teacher and a teacher educator at the University of Melbourne. Bron is an expert at weaving the theory into practical applications and easy to use strategies. Bron worked with our staff around the cognitive science behind how we learn and established research-based responsive teaching techniques to use in classrooms. She finished with a really practical session on planning for responsive teaching techniques. To give you a hint on what that might look like in the classroom, keep an eye out for mini-whiteboards being used. Be sure to ask your kids!

Overall, it was a full day of learning, with lots of new information, as well as reinforcing things that we are already doing well. Moving forward, teachers will be focusing on continuing to trial and embed the techniques in their classrooms. We will also be working as a leadership team to identify our next steps and what our follow up might look like in this area of teaching and learning. 

This process aligns with the work we are about embark on to reflect on our Annual Implementation Plan (AIP), which captures our goals and targets that we set out at the beginning of the year. Our three major strategies in the AIP this year have been around Collaboration, Differentiation and Engagement. These strategies, the goals, targets and actions that sit underneath them will be a major part of the reflection we undertake this year, but will also form the basis of the goals and targets that we set in our next AIP for 2023. As well as being a part of our our AIP for 2023, these will also be important frames of reference in our upcoming School Review which is tentatively scheduled for early in Term 2 next year. Stay tuned for more information, closer to the date. 

Working Bee

Thankfully the weather is looking like it is going to be fine for our upcoming working bee, tomorrow, Saturday 5th November between 12pm and 3pm. We hope to see lots of you there because there is lots of digging, mulching, weeding, planting and of course sausage eating required. Don't be afraid to come along in your best gumboots and bring a wheelbarrow and shovel (seriously though, if anyone has a wheel barrow, please be sure to bring it along with you!).  

A very big thank you to the environments sub-committee of school council for organising the working bee, it will hopefully be a fun and productive day.

Camp

In other exciting news, our Grade 3/4 students will be off to Toolangi near Kinglake, next Wednesday for their camp. It is great that after two years of interruptions, that this camp is able to go ahead. A big thank you in advance to the teachers for their hard work in organising the camp and to the parents who have kindly volunteered to go to support. We are closely watching the weather forecasts and potential for road closures due to the recent poor weather and flooding conditions and we will keep you updated.  However, at this stage the forecast for the next week is good but I think some insect repellant will be an absolute necessity!

Staffing Update

Recently, Christine our Wellbeing support officer has had to take some unexpected time away from Northcote PS in order to prioritise caring for her family. Christine is currently taking care of her father who has recently had a fall and her mother who he usually cares for. I know that with Christine taking care of them, they are both in good hands. Unfortunately this means that Christine will not be returning to Northcote PS. Christine has assured me that she will drop in, in the coming weeks to say good-bye to everyone. 

While we also thought that we would have Carmen until the end of year to replace Elena in P-2 Italian, Carmen has also had to step away unexpectedly to support her family. We are currently working through finding a replacement for Carmen and will share with you more information when it becomes available.

Calendar of Events

One of the things that we have been working on with staff and school council sub-committees is developing a whole school calendar of events for 2023. This is so that next year, you can know what to expect each term and when things are happening for the year. While this calendar is still very much a work in progress at the moment, it will include school run events (i.e. Athletics day or Book Week), Fundraising and Community  events (i.e. Movie Nights and Working Bees) and even Junior School Council events (i.e. Harmony Day). We are trying our best to identify dates where they are available, but in most cases we are trying to identify a tentative month or week of the term so that you get a rough idea when you can expect to see an event. As you can imagine coordinating such a document is a huge undertaking with input from lots of different people and groups, so we are hoping to have a final draft ready for everyone in December. 

BYOD information Evening

At Northcote PS we are in the process of implementing a "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) model that enables us to deliver a 1-to-1 device-to-student ratio that helps us to continue to build on the digital skills that students need as 21st century learners.  In 2022, the program was initially introduced to just the Grade 3/4 students, and each subsequent Grade 3 cohort would enter the program until it is across Grades 3-6. 

We will be holding a BYOD information evening on Wednesday the 16th of November at 6pm via Webex. If you are unable to attend the session at this time, it will be recorded and made available soon after. Further, if you have questions and are unable to attend, please send them into the school (northcote.ps@education.vic.gov.au ) and we will hopefully be able to address them on the night.

Shaun Wells

Principal